The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State, Pastor Tonye Cole, had approached the Court to challenge the election of Governor Fubara on grounds that he wasn’t qualified to run for governor as he was still the Rivers State government as Accountant General and didn’t resign as at the time of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC declared PDP’s Siminalayi Fubara, winner of the governorship election with 302,614 votes to defeat his closest challenger and APC’s Tonye Cole, who got 95,274 votes.
Both the Tribunal and Appeal Court had in concurrent judgments dismissed Pastor Cole’s application for lacking merit and for failing to provide credible evidence to prove his case of non-qualification, corrupt practices and non-compliance, thus affirming Fubara’s electoral victory.
The five-member Supreme Court panel headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, also in its judgment upheld the decision of the Appellate Court to dismiss the appeal of Patrick Tonye-Cole for lacking in merit, on grounds that the APC governorship candidate failed to prove his allegations of over-voting and non-compliance levelled against the Rivers State governor.






